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Tax Revolt Sweeps Ultra-Lib California!

And old saying proclaims, “As California goes, so goes the nation.” And while California for decades had one of the strongest economies in the world – with a state domestic product once measuring sixth on planet earth – increasing Democrat domination over the last 25 years has produced one of the worst economies in America. Thus in California we may be seeing the future for all Americans.

But the May 19 vote on California budget measures surely represents the turning of the corner and the proof that conservative economic values indeed are finally making a comeback once things get really bad. Voters by wide margins – up to nearly 2-to-1 – killed five tax increase measures that once-popular governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said were crucial to the state’s fiscal future.

Ironically Schwarzenegger was not in the state on Tuesday but was in Washington helping president Obama to publicize new gas-mileage regulations for cars.

The California tax revolt piggybacks on the national tax revolt exhibited in the Tea Parties of April 15 and is a sure sign of conservative resurgence in a state that has been ultra-liberal for many years. It is reminiscent of California‘s Proposition 13 tax revolt of 1978 that led to Ronald Reagan’s presidential election in 1980 and the introduction of national tax policies that have been powering the American economy for the last 25 years.

The California model now is expected to spread to other states that are spending far too much money for their citizens to absorb through increased taxes. California now must make deep cuts in spending. This is good news for the Republican party and its prospects for 2010 and beyond. If an ultra-liberal state like California can vote so overwhelmingly conservative, a major trend is brewing.

Since the mid-1990s, productive people have been fleeing California by the millions to escape its out-of-control taxes and spending. The state today is in fiscal free-fall. Governor Schwarzenegger, ostensibly a Republican, has had zero effect on the state because the Democrat party, allied with far-left-wing unions, controls all statewide offices except the governorship, along with both houses of the legislature. Both of California‘s US senators are Democrat as is an overwhelming majority of its congressional delegation in Washington. This is draining California‘s productive capacity as the unions get richer while the state gets poorer through relentless taxes.

California could run out of money as soon as July. With the failure of the budget proposals on Tuesday, the state could find itself $23 billion short for the next year. Proposition 1A, which had about 33% popular support, would have extended recently enacted tax hikes until 2013.

Adding to California’s problems is that the Obama administration is threatening to pull $6.8 billion in federal stimulus money if the state follows through on its promise to cut $74 million in wages from unionized home health care workers. In other words, forget the fiscal well-being of the state; union power comes first. This is like the federal stimulus money that is being reserved only for highly-paid unionized workers to repair roads and bridges. So obviously fewer bridges and roads will end up being repaired, disregarding the common good in favor of political expediency.

This union wage issue alone shows the type of folly that the Democrats and the Obama administration are bringing to our whole nation, never mind the massive indebtedness that they are creating as a result.

Fortunately only 16% of California’s likely voters say they now trust their state government to do the right thing. Schwarzenegger’s popularity is 34% while the state legislature’s is 12%. So indeed there may be hope for America and for California. Even liberals know when they are being had.

Now here is an excerpt from a May 11 news story from Fox about the Obama administration and the national economy:

The new administration budget said that the fiscal 2009 deficit would reach $1.84 trillion, or $89 billion more than forecast in February, while the 2010 figure now is estimated at $1.26 trillion, or $87 billion above the previous number. The fiscal 2008 deficit was $459 billion.

Notice that figure – a $1.84 TRILLION deficit. And we have a Democrat president and both houses of Congress run by Democrats.

Now here is an excerpt from a Fox News article from summer 2006, when Republicans controlled the White House and the both houses of Congress. This reminds us of how the economy was performing under Bush, and about which Democrats had only criticism of “tax cuts for the rich”:

WASHINGTON — President Bush is crediting his tax cuts for new deficit figures that are far lower than earlier White House estimates, but the red ink is expected to climb again next year and the longer-term outlook is more bleak.

White House figures released Tuesday estimate the federal deficit for the 2006 budget year ending Sept. 30 will be $296 billion – much better than the $423 billion Bush predicted in February but only a slight improvement over last year’s $318 billion.

Impressive corporate profits and big income gains by the wealthy were largely responsible for driving up tax revenues and, in turn, pushing the deficit down. On the other side of the ledger, the Iraq war and GulfCoast hurricane relief have weighed on the deficit _ as have interest payments paid on the rising national debt.

Bush portrayed the new estimates as validation of a budget policy centered on tax cuts passed in 2001 and 2003 and his clampdown on domestic agencies funded by Congress each year.

“These tax cuts left nearly $1.1 trillion in the hands of American workers and families and small business owners. And they used this money to help fuel an economic resurgence that’s now in its 18th quarter,” Bush said.” Economic growth fueled by tax relief has sent our tax revenues soaring.”

Democratic critics countered that Bush was celebrating figures that still represent the fourth largest deficit in U.S. history. The surge in taxes paid by corporations and upper-bracket taxpayers, they added, is proof that the current economic recovery is tilted in favor of the wealthy.

“Let’s not boast about a $300 billion deficit,” said Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. “Any statistic you look at recognizes the rich in America are getting richer, the poor are getting poorer and the middle class is getting squeezed.”

Note Reid’s words! Democrats can never get over their class warfare tactics, even when the unemployment rate was 4.5%!

So when Bush was president and things were great economically, the Democrats were complaining endlessly. Now that Obama is spending madly – as California is – and is turning our economy into an indebted disaster, those same Democrats are reacting favorably. This is the same party that has been running California into the ground for more than 20 years. In fact, the other worst economies in America are all in Democrat-dominated states – New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, Illinois, New Jersey and Massachusetts.

The best economy in America is George Bush’s Texas.

Please visit my website at www.nikitas3.com for more. You can print out for free my book, Right Is Right, which explains why only conservatism can maintain our freedom and prosperity.